According to USDA figures, whether baked, fried or nuggets, Americans consume more than 68 pounds of chicken per person annually. Until the early part of the twentieth century, chickens were mainly bred for egg production, reaching the dinner table only when non-productive birds were culled from the flock.

That began to change in 1923 when Delaware farmwife Cecile Steele ordered 50 baby chicks to replenish her egg flock. A hatchery clerical error delivered 500 instead. Rather than return them, Steele built a wooden coop and raised the birds for meat. At 18 weeks, 400 survived. They averaged more than two pounds apiece. They sold for 62 cents per pound to buyers, including hotels and restaurants in places like New York and Philadelphia. Her venture demonstrated that meat-bird production could be profitable.

According to the Agricultural Museum of Delaware, “the next year, she deliberately ordered 1,000 chicks.” By 1926, Steele had raised and sold 10,000 broilers, nearly tripling that within two years. Her husband eventually left the Coast Guard to join the business, formalized as Indian River Poultry Hatchery.

Steele’s success inspired neighboring farmers to build their own coops. The Museum noted that “by 1928, approximately 500 operations were raising broilers across Delmarva.” Several factors favored the emerging industry: low labor costs, cheap lumber and proximity to seaports and northeastern markets. Chicken houses required relatively little land, birds reached market weight in weeks, and poultry manure provided valuable fertilizer.

Supporting infrastructure soon emerged, including hatcheries, feed mills, equipment manufacturers, and specialized veterinary services. Improved transportation, particularly U.S. Route 13, linked growers with suppliers and major markets.

Poultry gave Delmarva farmers an economic lifeline when other income sources faltered. Following World War I, commodity prices fell as European farmers returned to production. Meanwhile, diseases damaged traditional cash crops, declining water quality hurt fishing and shellfish harvests, and illness swept through egg-laying flocks. Broiler production provided economic stability for area families, particularly when the Great Depression took a big toll elsewhere.

While Delmarva established commercial broiler production, the industry’s next chapter unfolded elsewhere, particularly in the Midwest. There, equipment manufacturers, agricultural researchers, and innovative producers transformed poultry raising from a labor-intensive enterprise into a mechanized business. Among them was Big Dutchman, founded by Holland, Mich., brothers Richard and Jack DeWitt. Its 1948 Model A chain feeder reduced manual feeding labor, allowing farmers to manage larger flocks.

Advances in hatchery equipment, processing, and scientific breeding accelerated the industry’s growth. The National Chicken Council notes that in 1942, an Illinois plant became the first to receive government approval for mechanized evisceration. Meanwhile, Midwestern manufacturers developed incubators capable of hatching large, uniform flocks. Agricultural research, often at Indiana universities, improved bird growth and production, shaping today’s commercial broiler.

The South also emerged as a major poultry-producing region. Milder winters and lower labor costs helped it surpass Delmarva, earning the region the nickname “Broiler Belt.”

World War II boosted poultry consumption. Beef and pork were rationed for the military, while chicken remained available to consumers, turning it into a dietary staple.

After the war, the industry focused increasingly on breeding birds for meat. In 1948, the USDA and A&P supermarkets sponsored the nationwide “Chicken of Tomorrow” contest, challenging breeders to develop faster-growing birds with greater meat yield. Midwestern growers from Ohio to Illinois participated. The competition eventually led to the Cornish Cross, the foundation of today’s commercial broiler industry.

The National Chicken Council’s publication, “U.S. Chicken Industry History,” describes the transformations: “The U.S. broiler industry…evolved from fragmented, locally oriented businesses into a highly efficient, vertically integrated success story.” Entrepreneurs, including Maryland’s Frank Perdue and Arkansas’ John W. Tyson, recognized the advantages of controlling production, from hatcheries and feed mills to processing plants and distribution.

Perdue Farms began as an egg business in Salisbury, Md., in 1920, near Steele’s original operation. It expanded into chick production, feed and grain storage, and eventually poultry processing, opening its first processing plant in 1968.

In Arkansas, according to Tyson Foods, “John W. Tyson began by purchasing cheap local chickens… and hauling them to Chicago where they commanded premium prices.” To stabilize his supply, he expanded into feed mills and hatcheries. Rather than owning the farms, Tyson supplied chicks and feed to independent growers who financed and maintained their facilities. In 2022, David Bray, former Tyson Foods Group President of Poultry, credited those growers: “The success of Tyson Foods (depended) on the hard work and dedication of our contract growers.”

Consumer demand rose further after McDonald’s introduced Chicken McNuggets in 1983. The product helped transform chicken from a whole-bird commodity into one increasingly marketed as individual cuts and processed foods. As detailed in Food, Inc., “Tyson developed a new breed of chicken to facilitate the production of McNuggets. Dubbed ‘Mr. McDonald,’ the new breed had unusually large breasts.”

Michigan Ag Today observed, “The industry responded with massive product innovation. The chicken sandwich is now on nearly every fast-food menu.” Demand for breast meat and other convenience products encouraged breeding programs producing larger birds with greater meat yields.

Chicken consumption surpassed pork in 1996 and beef in 2010, according to USDA figures. Today, a handful of companies dominate the American poultry market. Independent contract growers provide the facilities and labor, while integrators supply chicks, feed, processing and sales. Today’s broiler houses are high-tech, with systems regulating temperature, humidity, ventilation and feeding, a far cry from early hand-raised flocks. The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service called the broiler industry “one of the success stories in American agriculture during the last century,” demonstrating how technology, improved practices, and marketing can shape an industry.

Back on Delmarva, long-abandoned wooden chicken houses stand as relics of a smaller, hands-on era. They trace back to when an unexpected delivery of 500 chicks to a Delaware farm wife transformed American poultry agriculture.